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The initial public offering of FirstCry’s parent Brainbees Solutions Ltd., which opened on Tuesday, witnessed a lukewarm response from investors. At the end of Day 1, the issue was subscribed just 0.11 times or 11 per cent. The IPO, with a price band of Rs 440-465 a share, will close on August 8.
The lot size is 32 equity shares.
In the public offering, Firstcry IPO has set aside 75 per cent to qualified institutional buyers (QIB), 15 per cent to non-institutional institutional investors (NII), and 10 per cent to retail investors. Up to ₹3 crore worth of shares are also reserved for employee reservation section who would receive a discount of ₹44 a share.
Lukewarm response
But for staff quota, other portions remained undersubscribed; while QIBs’ portion is yet to received bids, NIIs and retail quota was subscribed 0.08 time and 0.46 time respectively. Employee quota was subscribed 1.79 times.
The ₹4,193-crore public issue of Pune-based Brainbees Solutions consists of a fresh issue worth ₹1,666 crore and an OFS (offer for sale) of up to 5.44 crore shares worth ₹2,528 crore by existing shareholders. Through the OFS, SVF Frog, a Cayman Islands-registered entity of Softbank, will sell 2.03 crore shares, and automaker Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) will offload 28.06 lakh shares. Apart from Softbank and M&M, other selling shares in the OFS are PI Opportunities Fund, TPG, NewQuest Asia Investments, Apricot Investments, and Schroders Capital. Further, individuals selling shareholders include veteran industrialist Ratan Tata.
Currently, Softbank holds a 25.55 per cent stake in Brainbees Solutions, and M&M owns a 10.98 per cent stake in the multi-brand retailing platform.
As part of IPO, the online e-commerce platform raised ₹1,886 crore from anchor investors by allotting 4.05 crore shares to 71 funds at ₹465 apiece. The Government of Singapore, Nomura Funds, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Fidelity Funds, Goldman Sachs Funds, Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius, SBI Mutual Fund (MF), ICICI Prudential MF, HDFC MF, Kotak MF and SBI Life Insurance Company are among the anchor investors.
Use of funds
The company will use the net proceeds from the fresh issue to set up new modern stores under the brand ‘BabyHug’, invest in subsidiaries, expand overseas, and implement sales and marketing initiatives. A portion will also be used for general corporate purposes.
Brokerage houses have pegged the company’s market capitalisation to Rs 24,142 crore post-issue.
Launched in 2010, FirstCry is India’s largest multi-channel, multi-brand retailing platform for products for mothers, babies and kids’. It was set up to create a one-stop destination for parenting needs across commerce, content, community engagement, and education based on brand affinity, loyalty and trust of customers.
Further, FirstCry expanded internationally in select markets, establishing a presence in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in 2019 and 2022, respectively.
Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Ltd, Morgan Stanley India Company Private Ltd, BofA Securities India Ltd, JM Financial Ltd and Avendus Capital Private Ltd are the book-running lead managers to the issue.
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